1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to wirelessly controlling a viewing session and, more specifically, to using one or more links to control viewing of a media signal, such as a television signal.
2. Background
Wireless delivery of content to televisions and other monitors is desirable. A current solution for wireless content delivery transmits according to television broadcasting standards, which conventionally only permit one way communication. One way communication limits the effectiveness of control signaling. If transmission in accordance with two way standards is employed, the control traffic is typically multiplexed with the payload (i.e., media traffic), degrading the quality of the delivered media. Out of band control links have been suggested.
For example, Radiospire Networks, Inc. has created a system that uses a 900 MHz link to complement uncompressed 1080i video transmission in a proprietary format over a proprietary Ultra Wideband (UWB) modem. Radiospire Networks advertises that its system can be used to replace wired High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connections with the 1080i video transmission. The media is transmitted according to a proprietary protocol and cannot be processed by a standard television tuner. Thus, the Radiospire Networks system requires use of a proprietary transmitter and receiver. Furthermore, the Radiospire Networks system uses a proprietary control protocol.
In another example, though in the context of long-range transmissions, Qualcomm Incorporated has introduced a system referred to as MediaFLO™. The MediaFLO™ system transmits media content over licensed spectrum to subscriber stations (e.g., cellular telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)). MediaFLO™ transmission is based upon a technique that includes the use of an encrypted Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) set of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) signals. MediaFLO™ uses a Third Generation (3G) reverse link for control between subscriber stations and operations centers, where the operations centers are servers that are separate from the entities that serve the media content. The reverse link is a bi-directional link that traverses various intermediate devices (e.g., the cellular base station and routers) between the device consuming the media content and the respective operations center. MediaFLO™ transmission has been adopted as a television broadcast standard.
Neither of the examples above employs a transmission over a media link performed according to a television broadcast standard and controlled by a bi-directional link independent of the television broadcast standard.